I wonder if the Express Pass will be the game-changer Phil says it is. "What country are you in?" "London." Is Vicki really that dumb or was she just rattled?

Got a bit of a problem with Dexter, though. That piece of sleaze he killed -- a worthless man, obviously, but an innocent one. It stopped Dexter from following his path of self-destruction by triggering that outpouring of emotion. But that guy had to die to make Dexter feel better? Yeah, I got a problem with that.

And I have a problem with the way he was ready to dump those three kids on Deb. Sure, he was overwhelmed with grief and guilt (as well he should be), but Deb's even less able to care for the kids than Dexter himself. I guess that's why the grandparents were introduced. (Didn't Rita have only a mother in earlier episodes?)

They're both valid points. Dexter's victims had always been carefully chosen, but that dumb schmuck was just cannon fodder. And the kids...well, I hope the grandparents stick around.

In Hawaii Five-O, McGarrett "transferred" from some New Jersey police department. Arrgghh. I'm going to send that one straight to the top of my list of pet peeves. Why do they keep doing that? But $#*! My Dad Says turned out to be not so very outrageous. I liked Shatner's low-key performance, not at all what I was expecting. However, it's been a number of years since I stopped watching sitcoms, and I'd forgotten how VERY ANNOYING a laugh track can be. Drove me nuts.

Yeah, me too. Surprisingly, Shatner's the only thing worth watching in that show. The other three main characters are caricatures, including the son -- make that especially the son. And the setting is the usual claustrophobic domestic sitcom set. But sitcoms worse than this one have become hits, so who knows.

Editing to add No Ordinary Family came as a complete surprise to me. I knew nothing about the show and watched it only because Michael Chiklis is in it. It's part Heroes, part comic book, part tongue-in-cheek comedy, part domestic drama (not too serious)...I enjoyed it.

It surprised me too, but in a different way. I'd read it was SF, but not comic book SF. So I was a little disappointed, but it had enough nice goofy moments to keep me watching, and I ended up liking it too.

I'd thought The Whole Truth might be good, since it presents both sides of a criminal case preparing for trial. And it was pretty good, mostly. Another of my pet peeves showed up, though: having the defense make its closing argument last. The prosecution ALWAYS has the last word. In the two episodes I've seen, it was pretty obvious in the first that the prosecution was going to win, and it was equally obvious in the second that the defense was going to win. Still, I'll hang on for a while.

But I won't be hanging on to S#*! My Dad Says. What a HUGE difference between the first and second episodes! The second was so silly I couldn't believe my eyes. A ridiculous episode. Hmmph!

I just don't get what's going on with Dexter. He moves so much stuff into Deb's place that she has to find another place to sleep...all so he can rent a van that has a bloodstain? That's the only reason for the van, since the two older kids have been written out, for all practical purposes. All that moving was useless, confusing, and unhelpful, and really had nothing to do with the kids. It was just to give Dexter a new target.

And get the show back on track, maybe. It looks like "correcting" to me, the way Eureka used time travel to tweak the present. Having Dexter continue his bloody ways while surrounded by wife and kids may have looked like a good idea at the time but proved too difficult to execute. But Dexter still has the baby; is something going to happen to him? Or is the Harry/Dexter counseling going to give way to a new Dexter/Harrison counseling?